Archive for the “Learning” Category
Blue Eyes and a Dirty Dress
One morning last week, Natalie woke up talking about eye color. She talked about her blue eyes, asked both Chris and I what color our eyes are and then announced, “I want to wear something blue today to match my blue eyes.” Chris and I looked at each other and shrugged, neither of us knowing where she came up with that notion.
We went into her room to choose an outfit. Natalie rejected a few things we suggested, then told us that she wanted to wear her “blue tank top with the flower on it.”
I said, “Sorry, honey, but that shirt is dirty. You wore it the other day and it’s in the laundry basket.”
“You mean my tank top is dirty?” Natalie hates it when we (or anyone) uses a general word to refer to something for which there is a more specific term. Heaven forbid you call her flip-flops “sandals.”
“Yes, your blue tank top with the flower on it is dirty. You’ll have to choose something else to wear.”
Natalie buried her face in my lap. Then she stood up, looking forlorn. “I really, really, really wanted to wear that tank top!”
I could empathize completely with having a specific, perfect thing in mind to wear, only to find that it’s dirty, or otherwise unavailable. “I know honey, it’s very disappointing when the thing you want to wear is dirty.” I really didn’t think that Natalie would be so emotional about clothes this young.
Natalie said again, “I really, really, really wanted to wear that tank top!” She looked like she might cry.
Chris also expressed his condolences about the tank top and promised to wash the it that night so that Natalie could wear it the next day.
Then I spotted a suitable replacement dress in Natalie’s drawer. “Look, Natalie! What about this dark blue dress with light blue flowers? It’s soooooo pretty!!”
Chris exclaimed, “Oh yeah, that dress perfectly matches your blue eyes!!”
Oh how we miss the days of pulling any old outfit out of the drawer and dressing Natalie without protest or hassle. Luckily, Natalie caught on to our enthusiasm for the blue dress and happily put it on.
As I looked at the dress more closely, I noticed there were some spots on it. I wondered why the spots didn’t come out in the wash, then touched one. Ew. I realized that the dress must have gotten back into the drawer instead of in the hamper after Natalie wore it last, because it had splotches of crusted yogurt on it. At this point, getting Natalie dressed had already taken 20 minutes. I knew that telling her that the dress was dirty would likely incite a tantrum and make both Chris and I late to work. As much as it pained me, I didn’t say a word. So, after all that fuss, Natalie ended up wearing something that was probably dirtier than the blue tank top that she wanted to wear in the first place. Oh, the irony.
Central Park Zoo with Aunt Cynthia
On Memorial Day (May 25) we met Aunt Cynthia at the Central Park Zoo. Even though we missed the penguin feeding and the sea lion feeding, we had a great time! Natalie especially liked riding the train (“just like Daddy!”) and the children’s area of the zoo. The highlight for me was spotting Jon Stewart, who was at the zoo with his children.
Since the zoo had both sea lions and seals, Natalie learned to tell the difference. A few weeks after the trip, Natalie and Meema were looking at a copy of Ranger Rick at the library. Meema pointed out a photograph of what she thought was a seal. Natalie quickly corrected her, saying, “Well, it looks like a seal, but it’s actually a sea lion.” Meema then read the caption on the photo and realized that Natalie was right!
30 Months Old!
Natalie turned 2 ½ today!! She continues to amaze us with her wit, sweetness, imagination, and determination.
Her communication skills are quite remarkable. She absorbs new vocabulary faster than we can keep track of and sometimes comes out with a (correctly used but often mispronounced) word that astounds us. For example a few weeks ago, she said to Chris, “I have sunglasses and you have ‘perstiption’ glasses.” Yesterday we were teaching her the word ferocious and giving examples of all the things that can be ferocious, like lions, dinosaurs, and bears. Natalie caught on right away and exclaimed, “yeah, and monsters are ferocious, too!”
She picks up on phrases that adults use and turns them around on us, much to our amusement. Some of our favorite quotes from the past three months:
“Mommy, whad’I tell you about the ketchup?!?”
“Daddy, finish your food and then talk!”
Having Natalie in a daycare setting with a mixed aged group of kids continues to work beautifully. Natalie is learning things that I doubt she would have the opportunity to learn if she were with children all her own age. Many of the things that Melissa teaches the kids during circle time are for the benefit of her 4-year-old son, Mikey, to prepare him for kindergarten. Natalie has been keeping up with him quite a lot. For example, Natalie has her complete address memorized, minus the zip code. She’s been spelling her name for a while now. And because she wants to learn to do all the things that Mikey does, she started writing her name, too:
Natalie’s sleeping habits are getting better and better. Since our last quarterly report, Natalie sleeps most nights from bedtime (which varies greatly depending on whether she’s napped, how active the day/evening is, etc) until early morning, when she comes into our bed around 6 am. Then she sleeps another couple of hours and we often have to wake her up for the day. When she wakes up in the middle of the night, it’s so jarring that I find myself thanking my lucky stars that nightwakings seem to be the exception rather than the rule. There are even days where she sleeps the entire night in her own bed and we have to go into her room to wake her up. I’m not sure how, but we managed to survive having a child that did not consistently sleep through the night until just before she turned 2 ½!
As wonderful as Natalie is, the challenges she presents us with this quarter are trying our patience. The main challenges are her dilly-dallying and whining. We haven’t figured out a way to motivate Natalie to do things quickly. There are plenty of things that she is capable of doing pretty fast (and of course insists on doing herself) that she takes her sweet time doing. Getting into the car is a daily battle. She likes to climb into the car and her car-seat herself, and while I’m glad for her to have this bit of autonomy, we got places on time more often when I just plopped her in the seat. This morning I lost my patience and snapped at Natalie to hurry up and go upstairs to get something (something that she insisted that she needed before we could leave). Of course this did not result in getting the task accomplished any faster. The result was that I felt guilty and irritated with myself and that Natalie sat on the bottom step of the stairs and whined, “Daaaaaady, Mommmmmmy yeeeeeellllled at me!!”
The whining. Oh, the horrible whining. Half the time I suspect that she does it simply because she enjoys modulating her voice, because she knows full well that she will be ignored until she uses her “sweet” voice. And yet I have a sinking suspicion that we’re inadvertently reinforcing the behavior, because it’s not stopping!
Of course all 2 ½-year-olds try their parents’ patience, and I feel lucky that (knock on wood) Natalie has not presented us with any true behavior problems, like biting or the like. Even considering the issues I mentioned, we find Natalie to be a pleasure to know and are so proud to see what a wonderful little girl she is growing up to be.
Chris took this picture of Natalie jumping at the Philly Zoo yesterday. I think it captures her growing adventurousness and the incredible excitement she experiences over the simple joys in life:
